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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28728669">I'd like to teach the world a song (in perfect harmony)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imaginarylandscapes/pseuds/Imaginarylandscapes'>Imaginarylandscapes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>IT (Movies - Muschietti)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, I truly believe that more people should just sing together, Singing, eighties music also makes me want to swing a bat at an ageless evil, it's a human activity, it's important that you understand that none of them are "good" singers, mention of death (georgie), no betas we die like genderless eldritch horrors, so I get it, why yes I was a choir kid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:08:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,682</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28728669</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imaginarylandscapes/pseuds/Imaginarylandscapes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It started when they were cleaning the blood from Bev’s bathroom. Mike had a habit of humming as he worked, a habit born from years of chores. Work went easier with a song, and if your family couldn’t afford a Walkman? Well, you made do with the voice God Gave You. </p><p>He just didn't expect the others to join in.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I'd like to teach the world a song (in perfect harmony)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><strong>Prompt:</strong><br/>Crack au where Pennywise is killed in 1989 solely because one or more of the Losers sings when they're nervous or freaked out and it's really hard to be scared when the person next to you is bopping along to the music in their head, whether it's church music or Whitney Houston. I would prefer if the initial singer is either Mike or Richie, though it can be anyone.</p><p>Prompt from clowntown kink meme 2021!</p><p>* </p><p>This isn't exactly the above, but hopefully it's close enough!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It started when they were cleaning the blood from Bev’s bathroom. Mike had a habit of humming as he worked, a habit born from years of chores. Work went easier with a song, and if your family couldn’t afford a Walkman? Well, you made do with the voice God Gave You. </p><p>So, Mike was humming an old song as he mopped blood from the tile floor of the bathroom, and then Ben started singing along softly, and then Bill, and then Eddie and Stan came in on the chorus, and when Bev trudged back up from dumping the garbage, she was greeted by a lively chorus. </p><p><b>MIKE &amp; BEN:</b> <em> I need you!<br/>
</em> <b>STAN, EDDIE, and BILL: </b> <em> I need you!<br/>
</em> <b>MIKE &amp; BEN</b>: <em> More than anyone, darlin'<br/>
</em> <b>ALL: </b> <em> You know that I have from the start<br/>
</em> <b>MIKE &amp; BEN: </b> <em> So build me up<br/>
</em> <b>STAN, EDDIE, and BILL: </b> <em> Build me up!<br/>
</em> <b>ALL</b>: <em> Buttercup, don't break my heart! </em></p><p>They all froze, embarrassed, when Bev poked her head back into the bathroom. </p><p>She held back her grin for a split second, before singing,  “<em>I</em> <em>know I’m your toy! but I could be the boy you adore! If you just let me know--</em>” </p><p>“<em>BA DA DAH!</em>” yelled the rest of the Losers Club of 1989, so loudly that Richie ran up to see what was going on. He was just in time to join the next round of “<em>HEY HEY HEY!</em>” and thoughtfully provided percussion by drumming on Eddie’s head. </p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>After that Mike didn’t stop himself from humming when they were all hanging out. Meanwhile, Ben would sing along to whatever tape was blaring tinnily from his foam headphones. Bill found that he didn’t stutter when he sang. Bev was having a Kate Bush Moment, and Stan’s attempts to memorize his bar mitzvah recitation kept turning into <em> running up that hill </em> and <em> making a deal with G*d </em>. Eddie kicked Richie fully out of the hammock for Bohemian Rhapsodizing (“In my EAR, Richie! You could pop my eardrum! One out of five teenagers experience hearing loss in the United States!”), and Richie pouted until he caught Eddie whistling it under his breath the next day. </p><p>And then. </p><p>A few weeks later, Ben was (purposefully) being jammed into a locker by IT, when he (accidentally) jammed a button on his Walkman and the sweet, sweet jams of New Kids On The Block started echoing against the metal walls of the locker. Ben couldn’t help it. Something in his fear-crazed, adrenaline-addled brain kicked into muscle memory gear and he started singing at the top of his lungs. <em> “Listen up everybody if you wanna take a chance! Just get on the floor and do the new kids' dance.” </em></p><p>“IT’s face went sort of… blank,” Ben said earnestly in the clubhouse the next day. “Like IT didn’t know what was happening. And then IT was just... gone.”</p><p>“And y-you think it was the s-s-singing?” Bill asked skeptically. </p><p>“My nan always used to tell me there wasn’t anything you couldn’t face if you had a song,” said Mike thoughtfully. “She’d sing to me when I had nightmares.”</p><p>“The ancient Greeks believed that some songs had healing properties,” chimed in Eddie, brow furrowed under his showercap. </p><p>“I’ll heal your mom’s property,” said Richie. Eddie delicately, and without looking, shoved his middle finger into Richie’s face.</p><p>“There’s only one way to really find out,” said Stan. His face was pale. “It’s just that… it’s not like songs just fly into the mind when you’re running from a demon clown.” </p><p>“Well, what if we picked a song now, and then you wouldn’t have to think about it. And the  next person to see IT sings it and we find out?” asked Bev. </p><p>Ben flipped his radio on. “Don’t Fear the Reaper” blasted out. </p><p>“Oh, abso<em>lutely </em> not,” said Stan. </p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>And so it was, the next time that Eddie Kaspbrak encountered IT, he had a moment of clarity. A moment of remembrance. A moment of grace. He started singing the song they had picked, quaveringly. </p><p>“Honey, what are you doing? Why won’t you help me!” screamed his mother-in-the-chair.</p><p>Eddie closed his eyes and sang and thought of the clubhouse, and how they’d all laughed at this song when it started playing on the radio, and how Richie had tried to drop his voice to match the singer, but had just kept cracking and everyone had started trying to do the dance from the video, and Stan had done it the best, of all of them, his elbows bending uncannily in time, and the whole scene was golden and safe and warm in his memory, and Eddie got louder and louder until he was yelling the chorus with his eyes closed in the basement of Keene’s pharmacy.</p><p>When he opened his eyes, the chair was gone, his mother was gone, and there was a wilted red balloon on the floor. </p><p>“Huh,” said Eddie. </p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>He biked over to Bill’s house as fast as he could and ran into the garage, yelling, “Hey, it worked! I think the song worked!”</p><p>Everyone else was there already, everyone except––</p><p>“It got B-b-bev,” said Bill, face drawn.  </p><p>“Oh.” Eddie's jubilance sank away from him. “So we’re going to get her.”</p><p>“Yeah,” said Ben, who looked like he’d been crying. Mike had his arm around Ben's shoulders. </p><p>Stan didn't say anything. He just looked sick. </p><p>“Let’s go kill this fucking clown,” said Richie darkly. </p><p>The six of them waded through grey water hand in hand, glum and terrified and  determined. Water plink-plonked musically down from the walls. The beams of their flashlights swung through the darkness to the rhythm of their strides. </p><p>Mike couldn’t help it (he never could, and thank goodness for that!). He started humming a song. </p><p>After a minute Richie had caught the tune and was whisper-singing the chorus out loud. </p><p>“<em>I would die 4 u! Darling if u want me 2, U</em>!” </p><p>“I’m not dying 4 u, Richie,” said Stan flatly. </p><p>“Staniel! U wound me!” said Richie. </p><p>“Hey now,” said Ben from behind Stan. </p><p>Whatever he had been about to say was drowned out by Eddie’s high clear voice piping up with, “<em>Don’t dream it’s over! </em>” </p><p>Even Bill laughed, and suddenly the sewers were almost bearable. </p><p>They reached the cavern and went quiet at the floating debris. </p><p>“Mother<em>fucker </em>,” said Stan under his breath, gripping Richie and Ben’s hands. </p><p>“There she is! Get her down!” Bill called out. </p><p>They dragged Bev down and Ben looked at Eddie with desperation. “You said that song worked?” </p><p>“Yeah,” said Eddie breathlessly. </p><p>“Okay then. Everybody sing!” said Mike. </p><p>When Bev blinked her eyes open, it was to the choir of Losers, their grubby, warm, human hands on her shoulders, all singing shakily “<em>Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and desert you! Never gonna make you cry! Never gonna say goodbye! Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!</em>” </p><p>“Guys,” she said, choked up. They all crowded in for a hug. </p><p>“HOW SWEET,” sneered the voice of the clown behind them.  IT was huge, legs like a grotesquely engorged spider. “BEVVIE AND ALL HER LITTLE BOYFRIENDS.”</p><p>IT stabbed a leg down, and they scattered, screaming. IT turned to one side and loomed over Bill. “COULDN’T SAVE GEORGIE, CAN’T SAVE YOUR FRIENDS.” </p><p>Bill froze. </p><p>“Hey! Turn around, bright eyes!” yelled Bev, chucking a rock as hard as she could and hitting IT squarely in the head.</p><p>“<em>Every now and then I fall apart</em>,” sang Ben, pavlovian and perfectly in time.</p><p>IT whipped IT’s head around and snarled. </p><p>Bev laughed, and threw another rock with perfect, deadly aim. </p><p>“I’ll total eclipse YOUR heart,” screamed Richie, pulling a baseball bat out of the wreckage and swinging with all his might. </p><p>IT, improbably, shrank. IT shrieked, enraged. </p><p>“I AM AN EATER OF WORLDS,” IT said, as IT flickered between monsters, a carousel slide projector of nightmares, and terror, and all your worst, most deeply buried memories.</p><p>Richie hit IT with the bat and started singing viciously. <em> “Feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time!”  </em></p><p>“Richie! I hate that song,” yelled Stan. </p><p>“Imperialistic nonsense!” agreed Mike</p><p>It shrank down again. It was just the clown, now.</p><p>Some water splashed up from It’s stamping shoes and caught Eddie on the face. He didn’t even flinch, just threw another rock as hard as he could and started yell-singing “<em>I bless the rains down in Africa</em>!” </p><p>“<em>I bless the rains!</em>” agreed Richie, instantly switching allegiance to the new song. </p><p>(It said something, but they couldn’t hear it.)</p><p>“That’s not better!” yelled Mike. </p><p>“You pick the song, then!” yelled Bill. </p><p>Mike, without a second thought, hit It with a pipe like It was a rotten piñata and started singing “<em> Nah Nah Nah Nah! Nah Nah Nah Nah! Hey, hey, hey! Goodbye! </em>” </p><p>“Good one, Mikey!” screamed Bev before joining in. </p><p>
  <strong> <em>NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH!</em> </strong>
</p><p>Singing, hitting, striking, they moved in. Shoulder to shoulder. Lungs expanding in time, singing, singing, singing.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH!</em> </strong>
</p><p>it was shrinking, shrinking into a puddle of goo.</p><p>
  <strong><em>HEY, HEY, HEY!</em> </strong>
</p><p><span class="font-small">"eater of worlds..."</span> it said, sadly, goopily.</p><p>
  <strong><em>GOODBYE!</em> </strong>
</p><p>Seven pairs of hands scooped up the pulsing, miasmatic lump together and crushed it.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>*</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You think it’s dead?” said Eddie into the sudden silence. </p><p>“Well, Spagheds,” said Richie thoughtfully. “What does your heart tell you?”</p><p>“<em>How will I know</em>? <em> How will I know</em>?” sang Bev irrepressibly, in a sudden burst of joy and a decent imitation of Whitney. </p><p>Richie laughed. “I was thinking <em> listen to your heart</em>, but that works too.” </p><p>The cavern above them rumbled, and a stone crashed to the ground right next to them.</p><p>“Run!” yelled Bill and they grabbed hands and ran. </p><p>They ran back through the sewers, up to the surface, and over to the quarry. Their hearts beat together in triumph, and in time. The stone walls rang with their voices, until it seemed like the clear water, and the golden-tipped trees, and the slanted beams of the late-summer sunlight were all singing too. </p><p>Somewhere out there in the inter-dimensional sauce, a turtle had a new favorite song. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>[“You’re sure you want that to be the song you walk down the aisle to? It’s so…um… retro,” said the wedding planner delicately. Bill caught Mike’s eye and winked. </p><p>“Oh, we’re sure,” said Mike, laughing. </p><p>“All of our friends used it in at their weddings, it’s a tradition,” added Bill. </p><p>Mike started humming off handedly. Bill grinned even wider before joining in.]</p><p>* </p><p>I truly did not think I would ever write anything remotely canon-compliant in this fandom, so thanks to whoever wrote this prompt, because the whole thing immediately unfolded in my brain, songs and all.<br/>Come say hi on twitter @imaginarylands2 where I love 2 yell about the greatness of smaus &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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